


The Sound that Love Makes

by melliejellie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, F/M, Family, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Friendship, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, M/M, Multi, POV Multiple, Pre-Time Skip, Romance, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life, Time Skips, end game Saeko/Akiteru/Tenma as a heads-up for the hint later, post nationals, the many forms of love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melliejellie/pseuds/melliejellie
Summary: In the small town where the Tsukishimas and the Tanakas grew up, love has a lot of different, wonderful sounds - old friends laughing in a tiny bar on Saturday nights, happy couples still flirting despite the years between them, and siblings giving each other a hard time like they're still just a bunch of kids.This is a collection of related, slice of life ficlets centered around the Tsukishima and Tanaka siblings and their increasingly connected lives.
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Tsukishima Kei, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Tanaka Saeko/Tsukishima Akiteru
Comments: 25
Kudos: 34
Collections: Haikyuu Fluffy Fest Bingo





	1. too-loud conversations and lots of laughter

**Author's Note:**

> Kei's POV  
> Present-day  
> Bingo board check: siblings becoming friends, too (although, they already are here), plus a wee bit of domestic bliss and sibling shenanigans (but more to come!)

There are only a handful of places that stay open late in Kei’s tiny hometown, and this bar is one of them. It’s run by a man about Akiteru’s age and his sharp-witted, always interesting mother. By now she knows to expect the group of old friends most Saturday nights, filling up the corner booth with too-loud conversations and lots of laughter.

Akiteru’s always there. He didn’t move far from home and is usually looking for something to do to after a busy week managing fussy customers at the stationary store.

Kei and Daichi come together most weekends from their place a short train or cab ride away. As long as Daichi’s not scheduled for an evening patrol and Kei’s not exhausted (and grumpy) after a particularly tough Saturday game with the Frogs, they’ll join in the fun for a few hours, but then Kei wants Daichi all to himself on his rare nights off from protecting the city.

Both Tanakas are usually there, unless Saeko’s taken off from work at the motorcycle shop to play with her taiko group or go off another adventure. Ryu, like Aki, is a regular at the bar, though lately he’s been putting aside more money to visit Tokyo and visit a certain beautiful once-manager that he somehow managed to not only date in the first place, but also set a wedding date.

(If he’s honest, and he never, ever, will be out loud, Kei gets it. Ryunosuke, for all his obnoxious tendencies, is a thoughtful guy and a loyal friend. He’s been there for Kei and Daichi over the years and he’s only gotten better once he and Kiyoko started dating officially. But again, never, ever, ever would he say that out loud.)

Back in high school, if someone had told Kei that he would be living near his hometown, hanging out with high school friends and his brother on a Saturday night, and married to a high school crush, he would have recoiled in horror.

Now, though?

He’s happy. The sounds of his family and friends-turned-family all talking and laughing around him is a comfort that anchors him week-by-week as he navigates the ever-changing, needlessly-confusing years of young adulthood.

Saeko, setting her heavy mug of beer down on the table, points to her brother and asks, “so when is Kiyoko’s store manager transfer going through? I’m ready to have my future sister in town for good.”

“A few more weeks and my lovely bride-to-be will be moving in to my cozy apartment.”

“You mean your run-down hole in the wall,” Kei adds.

Ryu sneers, “Hey, it’s comfortable and the rent is cheap, but uh,” he leans back in his creaky seat and runs a hand up the short hairs along the back of his head, “maybe that’s something she brought up.”

“Weren’t you two going to move somewhere new after the wedding anyway?” Daichi asks, finishing his beer, then slipping his hand under the table so he can wind his fingers together with Kei’s.

“Yea, but--”

Kei opens his mouth to deliver another dig, but Saeko beats him to it.

“--she took one look at the place and went running!” His sister howls, cracking up and sending laughter throughout the table of friends at her brother’s expense.

And this is why Kei likes her. Saeko is certainly not who he would typically be friends with, if left to his own devices, but he’s glad their lives have brought them together.

He can see what Akiteru sees in her, too. Their on-again, off-again, years-long relationship has tied the Tsukishima siblings and the Tanaka siblings together, seemingly, forever.

“It wasn’t like that!” Ryu pouts, but even he’s grinning.

The laughter starts to wind down, and Daichi comes to his rescue - ever the captain. “A chance for a new place. A new, fresh start. But what are you two doing until then?”

“I’m going to live in my run-down hole,” he shoots a look at Kei, “and she’s going to stay with her parents for a few weeks.”

Aiteru smiles, “Aw, nice and traditional.” He gestures in the direction of Kei and Daichi. “Not like those two.”

Kei feels a familiar brotherly frustration rising up in him, but Daichi’s shoulder bumps gently against his as he gives his hand a tight squeeze.

“Hey, when it’s good, it’s good. No need to wait.”

Just like that, any feeling that isn’t gooey adoration for his high school crush turned hot cop husband melts away. He allows himself a few moments of settling in to that feeling as he runs his thumb over Daichi’s wedding band, memories of their tiny, backyard ceremony a few months ago still sharp and clear in his mind. He knows for a fact that his expression is far too soft and lovey-dovey for being around company that isn’t just Daichi, but he gives himself one, two, three more seconds of bliss before he tries to salvage his reputation.

“Plus I managed to live in a proper apartment with, you know, working plumbing. Daichi was happy to move in.”

“And get out of my parent’s house,” Daichi grumbles under his breath.

“It works! Most of the time. You just have to kick the pipe under the sink if you want it to keep going,” Tanaka defends.

“That’s the definition of not properly working,” Kei says, his eyes glancing towards the other end of the table where Saeko and Akiteru are engaged in their own conversation, just the two of them.

It’s about time for them to be on-again. Saeko’s back from another trip abroad with her taiko group and Aki’s got that look in his eye that Kei recognizes as the one that comes right before he gets a late night call from his brother happily exclaiming that “this time’s good. It feels different.”

(Adding to the list of things he’ll never say out loud, he hopes it is different this time. Akiteru deserves to have what he’s found with Daichi and he’s only ever had eyes for Saeko. Well, Saeko and Tenma, but Kei’s never been able to get a clear answer about why everything with Tenma fell apart and he’s not one to pry.)

“The pipes and the wonky floors give it character,” Ryu stresses, pulling a weird face.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” Kei quirks and eyebrow and feels Daichi’s hand squeeze his again.

His husband leans a little closer and announces, perhaps a bit too loudy, “If you don’t quit it with the snark, I’ll have to take you in.”

And maybe it’s the beer, maybe it’s the look that suddenly flashes across Daichi’s gaze quickening Kei’s heartbeat, but he plays along. “Go ahead, officer, I’d like to see you try.”

Ryu excuses himself to go to the bathroom, but Kei can hear that Saeko and Akiteru’s conversation has paused. There’s an audience, but he can’t find it in himself to care.

“You know I can. Easily.”

A shiver runs up his back. He’ll never grow tired of being manhandled by Daichi, especially now that his muscles have grown, shaped and chiseled his already perfect body.

Then Daichi smirks and Kei knows he’s done for. His pulse has picked up and he’s wondering just how quicky they can grab their check and catch a cab home. “You know I won’t resist.”

A groan from the other end of the table - “I could have gone my whole life without seeing this side of my little brother.”

Saeko takes another huge swig of her beer, then waves a dismissive hand, “Eh, leave ‘em be, they’re newlyweds.”


	2. soft-spoken conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daichi and Kei reminisce about their early crushing days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changing POV, it's marked  
> Bingo Board Check: domestic bliss, new friends, team bonding, first kiss

“No, no. No way. We had our first kiss before we had our first date,” Kei punctuates his point by furrowing his eyebrows and gesturing with his hands. They’re lingering over mostly empty dinner plates at their tiny kitchen table. Kei was done a while ago. Daichi’s been working his way through Kei’s leftovers while they talk.

“Kei, you know I love you, but you are so wrong. I would never kiss first, date later.” Daichi sets down his chopsticks and places a gentle hand across his chest. “Because I’m a gentleman.”

Kei gives him a look. “A gentleman who had no qualms about making out with me before our first date.”

“I never have any problems making out with you,” Daichi wiggles his brows, “but I am a gentleman because, contrary to what you’ve alleged, the make out on the night in question occurred at the end of our first date."

“Alright, officer,” Kei smirks. “You’re still wrong, though.”

“Am not,” Daichi pulls a face, chuckling. “And I know I’m not wrong because I remember thinking on our first date how badly I wanted to kiss you, but I felt like I had to wait until the end because, well, it’d been such a long time coming that I had to do things right.”

“A long time coming? How long, Dai?”

Daichi blushes as he shrugs. “I don’t know the exact day, but I liked you _like that_ for almost a year before that first date.”

Now it’s Kei’s turn to blush. It starts at his ears, it always does. Daichi thinks it’s adorable.

“Oh my sweet Daichi,” Kei sighs dramatically, tilting his head to the side, “I loved you for much, much longer than that.”

***

_Kei_

When Kei entered high school, he had one friend, and he had already decided that was enough. Yamaguchi already knew a lot about him, arguably almost everything, and there was no need to go through that process again. So, when they joined the volleyball team, each for their own reasons, Kei was dead-set on keeping things distant between him and the other players.

What a fool he’d been.

These ridiculous idiots had it out for him from the start. They refused to acknowledge his stand-offish demeanor that he carefully kept in place. They’d pat him on the back, ruffle his hair, jump on him in celebration… okay that was all Noya, but the rest had it out for him, too.

He’d met annoying people before, in fact almost everyone Kei had ever met could be filed under at least “somewhat annoying.” But the other first years were two of the most obnoxious people he’d ever met. Stubborn, stupid, and somehow so likeable that Kei couldn’t find it in himself to hate being around them. Even when they were studying, which was actually physically painful, Kei found himself missing the two weirdos when he didn’t see them for a couple of days.

The second years were a mixed bag. Ennoshita, Kinoshia, and Narita were normal enough and the easiest to get along with on the surface. They didn’t bother him like the other two. Well, Ennoshita could, when he mustered up enough stink eye to pull rank and make Kei babysit Hinata. But that was no where near the other two - brash, loud, and way too jumpy. The way that they immediately felt like they could treat him like he was their little brother was infuriating. Tanaka and Noya didn’t even smash through his boundaries, they just simply refused to see them.

The third years were the worst of all because they cared so much. Asahi cared to the point of melting down. Suga cared to the point of, well, Suga could be encouraging and kind one second and maniacal and chaotic the next. The worst part of both of them was that Kei genuinely cared what they thought. He wanted to be able to spike the ball like Asahi. He wanted to know how to set and be versatile like Suga. 

But by far, the most frustrating one of all, was Daichi because he thought Kei had potential. Potential. Ugh. He believed in everyone to a fault and even if he was yelling at them one second, he’d be building them all up the next. He was always, always there for everyone. Including Kei.

And somehow all those idiots wiggled their way into his heart and stuck there forever.

Especially Daichi.

The moment he fell in love was during that first summer training camp.

Kei was still sore from the extra practice in the third gym the night before. He couldn’t believe they’d goaded him into actually participating. He thought he was better than that. But there he was, sore from practice and awake with bleary, dry eyes because he’d stayed up too late talking with Yamaguchi and Hinata.

He was looking in the mirror, pulling at the bags under his eyes, when he heard the bathroom door open behind him. He shot upright and started quickly brushing his teeth so he could avoid talking to whoever had just walked in.

Daichi comes around the corner, his hair poking up at odd angles, yawning and stretching. “Good morning,” he said, voice still thick with sleep. He walked to the sink next to Kei to wash his face. They stood side-by-side in a surprisingly not-awkward silence and Kei thought he might get out of there without having to navigate his way through a one-on-one interaction.

He was wrong.

“Heard you did some extra practice last night.” Daichi wiped off his face and turned to face Kei who definitely still had a bit of toothpaste on his lip, but thought it was rude to ignore his captain.

And then he said the words that sealed Kei’s fate.

Daichi smiled wide and said, “I’m really proud of you.”

***

“That was years before we started dating.” Daichi says, awe in his voice like he can’t believe it. “You liked me back then?”

“Not like, _love_. I was stupidly in love with you.”

Daichi pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and sniffles. He settles his arm on their kitchen table, palm up, inviting Kei to fit inside. When he wraps his hands around his husband’s, it’s with a gentle tenderness and a strange, bittersweet feeling in his heart. “We’re married.”

Kei laughs softly, “I’m aware.”

“How have you never told me this before?”

“Because it’s embarrassing. I had a giant crush on you for _years_ , Daichi. Years,” he repeats, holding out all the sounds. He adds the next bit quietly, “And I didn’t think you’d ever feel the same. I even,” Kei glances at the table and takes a breath. When he looks back up, he’s wearing a cleverly composed expression, but Daichi can read right through it. “I even had a speech prepared for after the third year graduation party. I was already all weird and sad about you all leaving, I thought ‘why not add to my misery?’”

“You didn’t!”

“I did. I wrote it out on note cards and everything.”

“Oh. Kei,” Daichi says affectionately, stroking his thumb over the back of Kei’s hand. “It took me longer--”

Kei raises an eyebrow.

“--okay a lot longer, but I got there. And I’m glad I did.”

***

_Daichi_

After he graduated, Daichi expected to keep in touch with the rest of the team the best he could, but what he didn’t expect was to become such good friends with the tall, surly middle blocker after they all parted ways.

Kei slowly wiggled his way into Daichi’s daily life. He can’t even pinpoint an exact moment. Just one week they were talking in the big group chat, and then another week they were watching the same movie at the same time while texting back and forth, just the two of them, about how bad it was.

Kei was surprisingly easy to talk to. Without the apparent need to appear a certain way in front of other people, the Kei he got to know through texts was still bitingly clever and sarcastic, but he was funny, too. And thoughtful. That same shrewd ability to dissect an opponent’s play on the court could be used to help Daichi unpack the problems he was going through at university. Kei was blunt, sure, but his advice was usually exactly what Daichi needed to hear.

And when Kei started to open up about his own life, Daichi couldn’t help but feel excited that the door had been opened to him, too. Their friendship felt special. He knew Kei didn’t trust everyone. He liked the team, loved them probably more than he realized, but Kei chose who he trusted with more of himself, and Daichi was honored to be one of the few.

When Daichi made the short trip home so he could do his laundry for free at his parent’s house, they started hanging out - sometimes in a big group, sometimes just the two of them. Some nights Kei came over to Daichi’s parent’s for dinner. Other nights Kei’s mom cooked up a big meal, delighted her son had another friend.

Kei was two different people then - one in front of the group, and another when it was just the two of them. With everyone, he was still warmer than he used to be, but he leaned on remarks and snarky comments to get a rise out of someone, usually Hinata. But when they were alone, he was softer, a little looser. He laughed more easily and talked more easily, too.

With all that they shared, it was no surprise when Kei called him one day to talk about where he’d been accepted for university. Daichi had been cheering him on the whole time. He didn’t know exactly which schools he’d chosen, Kei didn’t want to “jinx it,” but he always reminded him that he’d go far, no matter which school he went to.

But when Kei mentioned a potential scholarship to a school in Osaka with an impressive history and archeology department, Daichi felt like the air had been knocked out of him.

That night, Daichi couldn’t sleep. He lied awake wondering why he didn’t want Kei to be that far away. Naturally, Daichi was like anybody else and hated when friends moved away, but he and Kei were mostly phone-friends anyway. They saw each other in-person only a couple of times a month. And Osaka wasn’t even really that far. But this feeling grew inside him, gnawed at him and kept him awake, begging to be recognized.

Daichi was sure it was just feeling bummed that a friend might be moving, but this was so much different than how he felt when Asahi moved to Tokyo or when Suga studied abroad. He was sad when they moved, but he didn’t have this twisted up feeling in his stomach. His chest didn’t feel tight then. There weren’t pinpricks of tears at the back of his eyes. This was a different sense of loss, this was--

“I’m in love with Kei,” Daichi whispered to his ceiling.

***

“And then I immediately told you how I felt and took you out on a date,” Daichi says with confident certainty, looking at at Kei from where his head is resting on his lap.

Kei smirks, running his fingers lightly trough Daichi’s short, stubbly hair. “Liar. I don’t know how you think you can lie to me. I was there. I remember all of the adorable, awkward almost-asking you did before that. I remember because I distinctly remembering panicking for weeks over whether or not you were asking me out.”

Daichi manages to look offended for a second before he breaks into laughter. “Fine,” he admits, “it took me months after I realized I liked you. But then I distinctly remember taking you out on a date and then we kissed at the end of that date.”

“Wait,” Kei says, his hand stilling and a pensive look crossing his face. “That time we went to the park? You think that was our first date?”

Daichi pinches his brows together, “What? You don’t?”

Kei shifts his weight to the side, leaning on his open palm against the arm of their couch, eyes gazing down at Daichi in his lap. “We hung out at the park. We’d done that so many times before,” Kei replies, his tone sweet as his hand settles along his husband’s chin. “It was a perfectly lovely day, but you didn’t exactly ask me out.”

“I asked you if you wanted to go eat at the park. That’s a date,” Daichi defends.

“We bought sandwiches at the convenient store.”

“Yeah, but I made you a cupcake!”

Kei’s expression softens and he bends over to press a kiss to Daichi’s forehead. “You did make me a cupcake. Oh, the teenage crush panicking I did after that was something to behold.”

“See! So it was a date,” Daichi gestures with his hands, certain he was just proven correct.

Kei gently shakes his head. “Me freaking out over being around you didn’t make the day any different. I’d done that for years. And Dai, you never properly asked me out until the next time.”

“But I _felt_ different that day. I mean, did you?”

“Of course, but I thought I was imagining it. I was still convinced you’d never like me back. But then, when the sun started setting--”

“And we were sitting on that bench next to the lake--” Daichi adds dreamily.

“With all the wisteria trees around us--”

“It took me so long to work up the courage to put my hand on yours.”

Kei chuckles warmly, “I’m pretty sure I gasped when you did.”

“And we sat there like two nerds, silently holding hands.” Daichi’s nose crinkles with a smile.

“I think I was frozen solid, afraid that if I moved you’d realize what you had done and would pull your hand away.”

“But I didn’t.”

Kei grins. “No, you didn’t.”

“Because then I leaned over and kissed your cheek. And then you,” Daichi reaches up and traces his fingers along Kei’s jaw, “bold, little you turned, grabbed my shirt, and kissed me so hard I forgot how to breathe.” He laughs softly at the memory and Kei does, too.

“We’ve established that I’d wanted that kiss for a really long time. But Daichi,” Kei’s smile twists into a smirk, “that night you called me and asked if I would ‘go on a date to the movies,’ so I still think I’m right. We kissed and then you asked me out.”

Daichi shakes his head, “nope, that park date was the real deal because I made you a cupcake.”

“And it was good,” Kei sighs happily. “You know, you haven’t baked me anything in a while.”

“Maybe tomorrow. I’m on night duty, but I’ll have the afternoon here. What are you in the mood for?”

“I like anything you bake.”

Daichi grins, easily reading the unsaid words behind Kei’s expression. “You want cupcakes, don’t you?”

Kei nods slowly, smirk shifting back into a warm smile again. “And after I’ll kiss you so hard that you forget how to breathe again.”

“I like that deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I positively adore coming up with different ways these two get together. In my mind, I always picture Kei crushing hard first. Just knocked on his butt by how charming and weird and HOT his captain is.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy! The next little bit will focus on our other Tsukishima boi and his attempts at love.
> 
> (psst, and if you like DaiTsukki, I have another fic on Ao3 called [Sawamura Daichi Does Not Get Love Confessions.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22727224/chapters/54309631))


	3. late-night chats on the deck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akiteru and Kei share a drink on Kei's deck and talk about life.
> 
> Aki's POV

When Kei called and asked him to come over, Akiteru didn’t think twice. He grabbed his coat started the walk to his house. He knows Daichi’s on his fourth night shift in a row. Kei will never admit that he’s lonely, but Akiteru’s happy to provide him company all the same.

He’s not sure when they switched from being just brotherly to being friendly, too, but he likes it. Akiteru likes knowing that his little brother wants to talk to him about his life now. Likes knowing that he can do the same and Kei will be a listening ear.

About an hour ago, they settled down in the same wooden lounge chairs on Kei’s deck that they sit in most nights when they hang out like this. Akiteru made a drink from Daichi’s side of their home bar and Kei mixed a shameful amount of sweet liquors together to make his own.

It’s almost a little too chilly to be out here tonight, but real-talk has to happen outside when the nighttime can swallow their words.

“So what did happen with you and Tenma?” Kei asks, setting down his now empty glass with a thud on his outdoor table.

“Not something I want to talk about with my little brother,” Akiteru laughs darkly.

It’s been a couple of months now and he still doesn’t know why it bothers him so much. They’re friends. They tried. It didn’t exactly work right. And now they’re still friends.

That have seen each other naked.

Akiteru shivers. That always changes things.

“Gross, is it some sex thing?” Kei gimaces, scrunching up his face as he shoots Akiteru a look.

“No! No, nothing like that.” Not entirely. Okay. A little bit like that. Over the years, they’d gotten friendlier, hung out more. As they started to spend time together alone more often, they just sort of went for it. But something was missing. On paper it all made sense. Akiteru thought Tenma was attractive and kind, creative and interesting. They got along and were supportive and good together. But there wasn’t that spark, that passion that made everything connect.

“How’d you get so lucky on the first try?” Akiteru asks, sipping on his drink.

“You think Dai was my first boyfriend?”

“Well, yeah.”

Kei laughs. “Oh my god, he wasn’t.”

“What?” he sputters, “How am I just now hearing about this? Who’d you date before him?”

“You don’t know any of them.”

“Them?” Akiteru repeats, his mind reeling with new information. It seemed so improbable when Kei started dating Daichi, he just sort of assumed. Kei never told him otherwise. “Well, was Daichi you know, your first first?”

“And that’s not something I want to talk about with my big brother.”

They both laugh and Kei excuses himself to get a glass of water, adding, “enough of that conversation.”

The sliding door closes behind him and Akiteru looks up into the night sky. He’s been to bigger cities before, even tried to live in some, but he kept coming back here. The sky looks terrible in the big cities anyway. And the air smells bad. And he can’t go get food from his mom’s house when he doesn’t feel like cooking.

He always thought Kei would move away for good. His semi-pro games took him around the country and he even studied abroad for a semester, far more than Akiteru ever did. And even Daichi seemed on board to try to make it somewhere new for a little while there. But for as “over it” as Kei seemed with their hometown, when it came time to choose what to do next, he shrugged and said, “everywhere sucks, might as well be comfortable.”

Akiteru suspects there’s much more to it than that. His brother is secretly even more sentimental than he is. He helped Kei and Daichi move. He knows exactly how many boxes of ticket stubs and letters, photos and trinkets Kei has that he wouldn’t dare part with for any reason.

Maybe that’s what keeps Akiteru here, too. Ties to this place that run deeper than even he knows.

Saeko doesn’t seem to have that need.

He sighs as Kei steps back out onto the deck carrying two glasses of water. Akiteru takes his with a thanks, takes a sip, and sets it next to his drink.

As if his brother can read his expression, he says, “So, can’t help but notice you and Saeko are seeing each other again. How’s it feeling this time?”

And just the fact that Kei can accurately say “this time” makes Akiteru feel foolish. It’s been years of this on-again, off-again thing and he should probably put it behind him for good. He’s never been able to.

“It’s different. I’m different. But also,” he laughs to ease the tension that’s building up in his shoulders, “I hear how that sounds and I know I’ve said it before. To you. On this deck. It’s ridiculous.”

He expects Kei to agree, be kind but blunt in that way that Kei is. Instead he says, “I don’t think it’s ridiculous. Something keeps you two together.”

“Not forever.”

“But you don’t stay separated for long.”

That’s true. Even when their breakup fights were bitter and long, they still found themselves drawn together time and time again.

If Tenma was all kindness and support, then Saeko is all fun and passion.

“We do get along well,” he smirks, “in more ways than one.”

“Nope. Stop. No. Don’t want any more of that.”

“Says the little brother whose been subjecting all of us to public displays of sometimes quite suggestive affection with his husband.”

Kei sends him a smirk of his own and shrugs. “Why’d you break up last time?”

“Fought,” Akiteru says with a long sigh, “like we always do. About wanting different things. I just-” he pauses, not wanting to say out loud the thoughts that have been caught in the back of his mind for months now, but now, out here on this deck with Kei is as good a time as any. “I feel like I’m her back up, you know? What she comes back to when she’s bored with other things in life.”

“But when you’re together it’s-”

“Great. Amazing. She makes me laugh and we go on adventures. She’ll show up at my place in the middle of the night and say ‘we’re driving to the beach, get a hat.’” He laughs fondly. “She makes me discover parts of myself I didn’t think were there.”

“So what goes wrong every time?”

“The fact that I want to settle down and she doesn’t. I want to buy a house and quit renting an apartment. She doesn’t want to feel tied down, stuck in a house with a mortgage. She tells me she wants to feel free to pick up and move at a moments notice when something cool comes along. And I couldn’t stand that kind of uncertainty all the time.”

“But when she’s here, working at the shop, staying for a while, it’s-”

“It’s good. Really good.”

A hush falls between them, only the sound of the wind in the trees in Kei’s backyard filling the air. And in this moment, Akiteru is happy. Things make sense. He’s sharing a drink with his little brother and talking about things that stress him out any other time, but here, things feel simpler.

“Maybe don’t overthink it,” Kei says after a while.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Akiteru snickers.

“Fair, but not in everything,” Kei gives him a look, eyebrow raised. “Eventually I got tired of overthinking everything with Daichi and just took a leap. It worked out. I don’t know what your leap might look like, or even who it’ll be with,” his gaze shifts away from Akiteru, “but it’ll work out for you, too.”

When Akiteru walks home that night, he wonders what a leap might look like in his life, what shape it might take. It stirs up something uneasy but exciting in him. Light on his feet, he makes it home in record time.

After another night of brotherly chats, he falls asleep with his shoulders a bit more relaxed than normal and a smile on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, sweet brother time. (✿◠‿◠)
> 
> This fic got put on the back burner for a hot minute there because I didn't know where I wanted to go. Then I reminded myself that it's just fun little ficlets, little slices of life, and I don't need to make it some Big Thing. So, I hope you enjoy these soft moments. Loose plot. Much fluff.
> 
> (I've abandoned the bingo that started this.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for joining me in this (basically) plotless, slice of life little ficcie thing.
> 
> The title of this fic is from a beautifully fluffy [Sarah McLachlan Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nag8oGAw79w).
> 
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks never fail to make me smile (and I always reply to comments!).
> 
> Chat with me on Twitter - [@HeyMellieJellie](https://twitter.com/HeyMellieJellie).


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